My Cousin Rachel

Last January, being a lover of lists and planning, I did something very geeky (a lot like me) and that was to prepare a reading list. The intention was to make sure I got through a handful of books I've been vowing to make time for but had been displaced by the suggestions of friends and Psychologies magazine for the past two years. So with 100 pages left of my last book for 2008 (Daphne Du Maurier's 'My Cousin Rachel') I'm looking back at everything I've read. I didn't make myself stick at stuff I wasn't enjoying (my reading opportunities are way too short for that silliness) so What Mothers Do, The Ya Ya Sisterhood (Yawn Yawn Sisterhood?) and Quarantine didn't get ticked off. I tried and gave up on Dorris Lessing's The Golden Notebook too, but as that was not on my original list I needn't feel too bad. My favourites from the original list were Helen Dunmore's The Siege (my god that made me feel grateful for my life); Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island (outspoken wit I couldn't stop laughing and nodding along to) and Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (which has left me wanting to trek to Everest base camp). In addition to that lot I really recommend the following that I picked up during the year:- A Thousand Splendid Suns; The Point of Rescue; One Good Turn and The Post Birthday World. These come from terrific writers. So to 2009 and I'll be starting with The Almost Moon by Alice Seebold as soon as My Cousin Rachel has gone back to the library.